Which CPU For Gaming?

[clarkey01]

Hi

My GF's little brother is buying a new rig, among his choices he can have the same rig for around the same price with the mentioned CPU's.

I know quads are better for multitasking and future gaming will likely take advantage of it.

But the dual has the legs on it in terms of Mhz and he's not planning on overclocking.

Opinions?

 

[veri745]

You stated it exactly; the E8500 will outperform the Q8200 in the vast majority of games until they become highly optimized for multithreading.

 

[aigomorla]

teach him how to overclock.

slight bump to 3.2 ghz on the quad will make your gf's brother worship ya.

 

[dguy6789]

Keep in mind, when people say the E8400 outperforms the Q8200 in some tasks, they need to put an asterisk next to the word outperform.

*Will never outperform by a margin that is noticeable. Synthetic benchmarks are required to tell the user that something is faster than the other. This is for every case where the dual outperforms the quad. For the cases where the quad outperforms the dual, the differences can be enormous, sometimes approaching 100%.

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
Keep in mind, when people say the E8400 outperforms the Q8200 in some tasks, they need to put an asterisk next to the word outperform.

*Will never outperform by a margin that is noticeable. Synthetic benchmarks are required to tell the user that something is faster than the other. This is for every case where the dual outperforms the quad. For the cases where the quad outperforms the dual, the differences can be enormous, sometimes approaching 100%.

A 30% clock increase and 50% cache increase will definitely be noticable in cases where the quad isn't benefitting from the extra cores :\

 

[F1N3ST]

E8200 is $99 and Q9550 is $170, both at Microcenter, just felt i'd share, look at hot deals section. Better yet, you buy the 9550, and sell him your 6600 > lol

 

[RussianSensation]

I would go for Q9550 2.83ghz for $170

$20 less than E8500 on Newegg.

only 12% performance difference with 2 cores, but this way you have additional 2 cores to use when the time comes. No brainer to me.

 

[F1N3ST]

Russian, i beat you, but no linky from me! lol.

 

[faxon]

alternatively, you can get an x4 920 for $150, or an x4 940 for $189 (while supplies last since it's discontinued)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103472

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103471

ed: i should note that the 940 also has a ton of excellent combo deals ($25-80 off mobo/cpu, $25 off a GTX280/285 + cpu, and $30-40 off intel SSDs), and the PH2s listed here are 2 performance binings faster than the cpus they are priced to compete against (940 vs Q8400 & 920 vs Q8200)

 

[clarkey01]

Q8200 overclock well? he's not that advanced and he's a little scared of building his own rig, have offered but he'd much rather buy it off the shelf (shows how much he trusts me)

He is using www.dinopc.com as his vendor and his budget is around £315 :

Quad

Dual

 

[Zenoth]

I'd go with a Q8400, it's like $20 more than a Q8200 only and it's 300Mhz faster.

 

[clarkey01]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
teach him how to overclock.

slight bump to 3.2 ghz on the quad will make your gf's brother worship ya.

If only his mother felt the same !

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: faxon
alternatively, you can get an x4 920 for $150, or an x4 940 for $189 (while supplies last since it's discontinued)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103472

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103471

ed: i should note that the 940 also has a ton of excellent combo deals ($25-80 off mobo/cpu, $25 off a GTX280/285 + cpu, and $30-40 off intel SSDs), and the PH2s listed here are 2 performance binings faster than the cpus they are priced to compete against (940 vs Q8400 & 920 vs Q8200)

Or a Ph2 X3 720 for $120 and a motherboard that unlocks. I think pretty much all these unlock, most people just don't have a bios + mobo that's known working and reliable.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: clarkey01
Q8200 overclock well? he's not that advanced and he's a little scared of building his own rig, have offered but he'd much rather buy it off the shelf (shows how much he trusts me)

He is using www.dinopc.com as his vendor and his budget is around £315 :

Quad

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/...re-2-Duo-PC-95p378.htm">Dual</a>

2nd link has HD 3450 or 9500 GT or Intel onboard as videocard options and only 2GBs of ram. You can put any CPU in there you like and it won't matter for gaming :disgust:

If you don't want to assemble your own, get the 1st system:

- spend extra 25 pounds towards Q8400
- upgrade the videocard to 4850 512

Total 378.

 

[clarkey01]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: clarkey01
Q8200 overclock well? he's not that advanced and he's a little scared of building his own rig, have offered but he'd much rather buy it off the shelf (shows how much he trusts me)

He is using www.dinopc.com as his vendor and his budget is around £315 :

Quad

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/...re-2-Duo-PC-95p378.htm">Dual</a>

2nd link has HD 3450 or 9500 GT or Intel onboard as videocard options and only 2GBs of ram. You can put any CPU in there you like and it won't matter for gaming :disgust:

If you don't want to assemble your own, get the 1st system:

- spend extra 25 pounds towards Q8400
- upgrade the videocard to 4850 512

Total 378.

He would have 4GB on all his machine. He currently has a 1950xt which he will swap out, he's a bit short on cash so 320 is his maximum. I think I am going to tell him to for the quad, whats the OC like on Q8200?

 

[F1N3ST]

Poor, I have a 7x multiplier and it's a duel. I wonder if the board that comes on that PC even has OC enabled. I'm running 400x7 and its a nice boost from stock but it's still only 2.8ghz.

 

[clarkey01]

Originally posted by: F1N3ST
Poor, I have a 7x multiplier and it's a duel. I wonder if the board that comes on that PC even has OC enabled. I'm running 400x7 and its a nice boost from stock but it's still only 2.8ghz.

Meh :-(

 

[MikeShunt]

I have an overclocked q6600 and having played lots of games over the past year I feel I could have managed just was well with a dual core overclocked higher, if not better.

 

[F1N3ST]

Mmmm, too bad you don't live in america! I just picked up my Q9550 for $180 with tax! I'm working on the OC right now, might go for 400x8.5, it would be nice to be running 3.4Ghz

 

[Eureka]

Get a dual-core, quad-core just isn't needed for games right now, and you'll be saving a ton of money.

 

[clarkey01]

Meh he's gone for the Q8200, will TRY and OC it to 2.8 Ghz for him